Letters from The Muse #3: Remember that YOU are magic

Plus some prompts to help you remember how to dance with The Muse.

Dear Creative You,

What voices — both internal and external — are you listening to? What messages are you consuming? Down what dark, twisted corridors is your mind traveling? Whose voices are the loudest, yours or theirs? Who are you listening to?

Don’t you remember, darling creative, just how unique you are? Don’t you remember all the stories you made up as a child, your imagination running wild and free? The art that you created with wild abandon, happy simply to lay down colors and scribble with your crayons? Don’t you remember that you were constantly dancing with The Muse?

Your curiosity is what draws Me close. Your delight invites Me in. Your playful explorations make Me dance. And together, we twirl across the canvas of your creation, flinging ink and paint and glitter!

Don’t your remember that you are magic? That you are the one who always called out to Me, and that I always answered your call? And then you grew up and forgot that all you need place on My altar is your curiosity, your delight, your willingness to explore, to dance, to make glorious messes, and that I will be your partner in crime, whispering new ideas, new secrets, new directions into your ears.

Love,

The Muse

A Museful invitation for you

A handful of prompts and invitations to help you to re-enchant your creative practice.

• Take a look at your inbox, at the messages that you receive every day. Notice the messages that no longer resonate with you. The emails that you regularly delete without reading. Or the ones that lie unread in your inbox for days or weeks or months. Unsubscribe from the messages that don’t support your creative journey any longer.

• Do a similar exercise with your social media feeds. Is there a creator who constantly makes you feel “less than”, whose messages exhaust you? Hit that unfollow button.

• If your inner critic is particularly loud, sit down with paper and pen and invite them to have their say. What are they criticizing? What are their fears? Let them have their say. Then tell them you appreciate their concerns, but that you’ve got this. That you won’t fall apart if the thing you’re working on doesn’t work out. Rip up that paper and use it as collage, or paint over it. Create some beauty over your fears.

• Make an altar to the Muse. You can make a tangible, physical altar, with a representation of the Muse if you like, some crystals, or other things that are meaningful to your creative heart.

• Invite the Muse with your curiosity, your delight, your willingness to explore. What material or idea has sparked your curiosity in recent times? Are there any creative avenues you wanted to explore? Make some time to play with those ideas/materials and see what happens. Focus on the process rather than the journey.

I’m going to make a play date with the Muse in a day or two, and I’ll share my studio altar and the results of my exploration with you next week.

I’d love to hear how this Letter from the Muse landed with you, and if you try any of the prompts, I’d love to see/hear what came up for you. Drop a comment on this post or reply to this e-mail and let me know?

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